Adventures of a multidimensional freak

This is Juan Julián Merelo Guervós English-language blog. He teaches computer science at the University of Granada, in southern Spain. Come back here to read about politics, technology, with a new twist

This analysis yields an explicit and conceptually clear measure of political polarization, demonstrating a sharp increase in partisan polarization which preceded and then culminated in the 104th Congress

Which only proves that we still have to learn a thing or two about democracy from America. A similar analysis in Spain would be meaningless: the governing party and its allies vote for whatever they propose, and the opposition against. Sometimes there's an abstention or two, if the thing is really controversial. And that's that.

I don't completely agree. I think the Spanish political system was designed to give strength to the parties' rulers instead to congressmen because in the Transition that was necessary in other to reach deals at the higgest level. Maybe 30 years later, that system is less useful.